It is rare for the student newspapers of New Jersey colleges to get together for an event, but this is what happened on February 20, when US Senator Jon Corzine held a press conference for student reporters. Held at the College Ave. campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, the event brought together reporters from 15 college newspapers and one college television station.

Senator Corzine is one of the two Democratic senators from New Jersey, first elected to the Senate in 2000. He is a strong supporter of federal and state financial aid programs for college students, having graduating from a public university. In recent months, he has backed legislation that would prevent financial aid changes which would result in less financial aid for most students. When not in Washington, DC, Sen. Corzine lives here in Hoboken.

The press conference began with some remarks by the Senator. He spoke about his experience going through college, saying that helped him get "on the ladder of opportunity," leading to his stint as co-chairman and co-CEO of Goldman Sachs and ultimately his election as a senator. He also commented on the upcoming presidential election and its importance to the nation, with the nomination of several Supreme Court justices possibly being decided by the winner of the election.

One of the most important issues raised by the Senator during his remarks was that of student participation in the election process, and political awareness among college students. He cited figures which show the 18-24 age group (the group most college students fall in to) as voting significantly less than all other groups. Referring to the reason politicians so often address issues like social security, Senator Corzine said "If I want to win, I've got to talk the people who vote."

At this point, the floor was opened to questions. The first questions related to a measure blocking financial aid changes, which would in many cases lower students' financial aid. Sen. Corzine backed an act that would prevent the new changes from taking effect for a year, pending a review of the impact of the changes by the Department of Education

The topic was then changed to the job market, and specifically what could be done to improve the situation in the United States. Senator Corzine recommended fixing the budget deficit to put more capital in the hands of investors, solving problems with the trade deficit by using the World Trade Organization rules to help level the playing field, and finally by creating making "tax credits for job creation the moral equivalent of depreciation." He believes we are "underweighting the value of labor" and need to increase the value of labor in the US.

Discussion moved to the issue of student participation in the political process, chiefly regarding how to get and keep students motivated, the way Howard Dean managed to do so during his campaign. Sen. Corzine believes that Dean's success with college students was due to two things, first, his views on some of the issues, and second, his use of technology familiar to students to attract them to the campaign. Corzine said that "we damn well better start taking the students in our country seriously" and "I personally take it [college student participation] very seriously, because I think, frankly, it's your future."

The subject of the USA PATRIOT Act was raised, in the context of the reported abuses of some of the provisions of the act. Sen. Corzine, who voted in favor of the Act, said that "you could vote for the Patriot Act ... and still not believe all of the elements of the Patriot Act are something that you are supportive of." He believes that the Act was well-intentioned, but the implementation and uses of it are not keeping with its spirit, saying that "there were elements of that bill that were good, and there were elements that were maybe not as attractive, but how it got implemented was completely unattractive."

After touching on the issues of the 9/11 commission, data mining, the Israel/Palestine situation, and the upcoming election, Senator Corzine wrapped up the press conference, thanking those in attendance for coming.